1. Technical Field
Aspects disclosed herein relate to systems and methods for managing funding of academic research and more particularly to systems and methods for managing portfolios of research grants.
2. Background Discussion
A large percentage of the funds used by research institutions to conduct research come from research grants. Research grants are sums of money allocated to support research within a specified domain of knowledge. Research grants issue from a variety of public and private sponsors and vary significantly in monetary value and duration. The domains of knowledge targeted by research grants may vary substantially in scope such that some research grants are generally directed to broad areas of knowledge, e.g. the study of medicine, while others are tailored to specific intellectual pursuits, e.g. the study of a recently discovered text.
Some research institutions draft and submit a large number of grant proposals in an attempt to acquire funding to support research projects that they consider to be interesting or deem important. Such institutions often build grant portfolios consisting of large numbers of research grants that provide funds to research projects for spending and indirect cost recovery. Almost universally, research institutions assess current performance and future prospects for their research portfolios by tracking “awards.” Awards are annual installments released for spending by sponsors on previously funded proposals. As such, awards are a trailing indicator of past results and provide no guarantee that similar results will be achieved anytime in the future, near-term or beyond.